Nordic Hotel Market Rebounds Strongly in 2010

The recovery of the hotel markets in Scandinavia is clear, but Helsinki and Sweden are individual markets that do particularly well.

Taken as a whole, the Nordic countries’ hotel industries outperformed Europe during the three quarters of 2010. The region’s ADR for September in euro terms grew by 8.5% compared to the same month a year before and RevPAR was up by 10.7%. The European average showed that occupancy was 5.6%higher, resulting in RevPAR growth of 9.5%.

Looking at the individual Nordic countries in their local currencies, however, brings Sweden out on top. It registered the highest rate of RevPAR growth through the month of September, reporting an 8.0% RevPAR increase compared to Finland (up 2.3%), Denmark (down 5.9%) and Norway (down 2.5%). Both rate and occupancy growth boosted RevPAR growth in Stockholm, Helsingborg and Karlstad, while Malmo and Gothenburg were weighed down by new supply.

In Norway, Oslo and Kristiansand showed market declines, while Stavanger outperformed the rest of the country. Helsinki recorded the highest occupancy increase of the four Nordic capitals in September y-o-y, up by 11.1%, but less overwhelming average rate gains resulted in RevPAR improving by only 3.6%. Meanwhile, Copenhagen was the only capital to report a fall in RevPAR. It saw average rates decline by 11.1%, helping to push demand up by 12.4%, but supply also increased fast, 8.8% up on the year.